Scan the Block · for contractor or trade

What the city already knows, before you price the job.

A bid is a bet on what a wall is hiding. The permit history, the open obligations and the notices an inspector already filed are public record before you ever pick up a phone — read the parcel in seconds, and know what a prior contractor left open before you inherit it.

The questions it answers

What permits are already open on this building?
Are there fire-suppression or sprinkler violations on file?
Any pest or infestation notices at this address?
Does this building still owe a soft-story retrofit?
Who pulled the last permit here, and what was it for?
What has been filed against this building in the last year?

The sections that earn their keep

Open permitsBuilding, electrical and plumbing, filed and not yet closed out — the obligation a job can quietly inherit.

Fire-suppression violationsSprinkler and standpipe citations specifically, split from alarms and exits — a customer an inspector already flagged.

Pest and infestation noticesRodent, cockroach and bedbug citations, split from general sanitation — the same signal, for a different trade.

Soft-story retrofit statusWhether the parcel is on the mandatory seismic program, and whether the obligation is still open.

The permit record, in fullEvery filing on the parcel, dated, with what it declared and whether it closed.

Written for you

What to check before you bidThe public record on a building before you send a proposal: what is already open, what an inspector already flagged, and what a soft-story obligation is worth knowing before you price the job.Permits, and the work nobody filedHow to read a parcel's permit history, what an open permit costs the next owner, and why the useful signal is often what the record does not contain.Earthquakes, ground and hazard zonesSix different things people call “seismic risk”, what each one actually is in San Francisco, and the one this report cannot tell you.

See it on a real address

The front page runs on live output for 820 Post St — every number on it is the report's own. Trade — the bid-focused plan — starts at $19 a month; full plans start at $49, and re-reading a report you have run is always free.

See the plans Try an address

Also written for: buying a home · renting · owner or landlord · agent or broker · investor · developer or builder · lender or underwriter · insurance · hoa or property management · attorney or other professional